Nervous
by DontHateMeCuzImBeautiful
Summary: The game seemed innocent at the time, but Kagome's feeling the repercussions of the 'Nervous' game long after she leaves home. She didn't factor in an easily jealous hanyou with an eerily sensitive sense of smell...IXK


**Disclaimer: **Though it's been a while, I still don't own my all time favorite anime characters. Rumiko is one lucky girl... :)

**A/N: **Wow, it has been a LONG time since I posted a oneshot this long, and an Inuyasha oneshot at that. I've been over on the Ouran High School Host Club and Twilight side of , and I have to say that I dearly missed this side of the fandom. Now, with that said, this may be my last Inuyasha piece that I ever do. It's been sitting on my hard drive for, literally, MONTHS, and I'm glad that this will be my last one. Now, that doesn't mean that I'm done with Inuyasha at all; I'm thinking of doing the lemon chapter for this story, and it will be a whlie before I update this, Deal with a Demon, A Time for Reflection, AND do what I'm going to do with Rain, so have no fear! I'm not quite finished yet ;). Anyway, very very very mild OOCness towards the end, and though you may think Kagome is OOC, keep in mind that she IS almost 18 years old now and a big girl now!

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_Why the _hell_ did I agree to that again…?_

I found myself asking the same question I had been for about the hundredth time in the past few hours and nearly sighed at my stupidity once more. Of course, I couldn't _entirely_ place the blame on myself. There had been many factors that contributed to the one moment of weakness that would undoubtedly earn me a lifetime of punishment from a certain anger prone hanyou…

I winced as I pictured his reaction when he discovered not only the fact that I was late, but that I didn't have ramen, not to mention the _reason_ I was late…

I, Kagome Higurashi, had to have been the stupidest girl in Japan.

I planned on completely dodging Inuyasha until the last minute so that Sango and I could get to the hot spring and talk out a plan, but again fate played me for a fool. As soon as I had hauled myself over the lip of the well my vision was completely obscured by flaming red haori. I grimaced a bit before plastering a smile on my face, gradually pulling myself onto the ledge into a sitting position.

Though I refused to look up, I could feel eyes burning a hole through my skull and I took a mental breath before I finally met them. Piercing golden eyes bore into my undoubtedly frantic looking browns, and for a moment I wondered if he would follow me if I just fell back into the well.

Only the fact that I knew he would kept me in the Feudal Era.

However, I stood my ground (Or, rather, sat my ground as I was still on the lip of the well) and tried to seem nonchalant as I cleared my throat and began, "Hey Inuya-!"

"Where the hell have you been?"

I winced at his carefully measured words, bit my lip and glanced away for a moment. When I looked back towards him his entire stature radiated the rage I could nearly feel. He stood glowering down at me and for a moment I was absolutely stunned. The rising sun behind him illuminated his body in a golden glow while an invisible breeze blew his long white locks around his shoulders. Though he was angry, it certainly didn't stop him from being hot…

It was a moment before I pulled myself together enough to reply, "I'm sorry Inuyasha. I went out with some of my friends last night and I totally slept in-"

"You were supposed to be here _yesterday_." He growled and stepped a little closer to me before suddenly stiffening, and I knew what was coming next. He took yet another step, and another, until he was chest to chest with me, moved my hair to the side and sniffed. Hard.

He stiffened again before positively snarling, "Why the fuck do you smell like that fucking idiot HOBO?!"

I instinctively recoiled and winced at his tone of voice as well as the murderous look on his face that said he would kill Hojo if he ever got his hands on him. I tried to smile, to quell his fears by acting as though nothing was wrong, but the action seemed to just infuriate him more.

I went back to chewing on my bottom lip before I answered softly, "I-I…Eri was having a party…to celebrate her getting into Tokyo U…" Inuyasha's eyes narrowed dangerously and he cracked his knuckles impatiently. I hurried on to concede my point. "Anyway, some of our friends were there and they wanted to play 'Nervous'…"

I broke off, blushed and looked away from Inuyasha's probing gaze, ignoring his unspoken questions. It was a few moments before he murmured, "'Nervous'…? Just what the hell is 'Nervous'?"

Trying my best to lighten up the situation I took a deep breath and explained, "Nervous is that unsettling feeling you get in your stomach when you just know something isn't right…"

He rolled his eyes. "Cut the shit Kagome! You haven't answered my question: What the fuck is this _Nervous_ and why the _FUCK_ do you SMELL LIKE THAT BASTARD HOJO?!"

I grimaced and sighed, looking down at my hands. Dare I answer him? Things could definitely get out of hand if I told him just what the game was. He'd more than likely want to rip everyone to shreds.

_Or maybe he'd want to play too…_

I shivered pleasantly at the thought.

"Kagome…"

"It's a game!" I suddenly blurted and blushed crimson. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at my reaction and I realized I might as well finish what I'd started. "It's a game where you're supposed to move a hand up someone's body until they say that they're nervous. I got paired up with Hojo and…" I couldn't continue so I trailed off, unable to meet the enraged hanyou's glare directly.

Minutes went by when I was suddenly yanked off my feet and pulled Kami knew where. It took me a moment before I realized it was Inuyasha pulling me with him, and another minute before I understood we were headed toward…

"Inuyasha? Inuyasha wait a minute I can explain perfectly well out here-!" My pleas were cut off as he yanked me onto his back and we sped through the outermost trees of Inuyasha's Forest. I held on with all the strength I possessed, not doubting for a moment that he would drop me unceremoniously when we reached his chosen destination. And, just as I predicted, once we were in the very middle of the forest he let go, uncaring that I landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"Ouch! Inuyasha what the he-!"

But no sooner had I tried to speak that I was forced up against a tree, Inuyasha's knee planted between both of mine and both of my hands captured in one of his above my head. Shocked into silence I only stared blankly into Inuyasha's burning eyes and tried for the life of me to remember how to breathe.

The seconds ticked by as I tried my best not to be completely overcome by the effect Inuyasha's close proximity was having on me when he finally whispered, "Are you nervous now, Kagome?"

For another second all I could do was blink stupidly at him before I practically squealed in a high pitched voice, "N-no…"

_Smooth…_

I tried to clear my throat as he chuckled dangerously in his. I struggled for a second to release my hands from his grip, but quickly desisted when he growled low in blatant warning. Brushing my hair out of the way he nipped at my throat and snarled in my ear, "Do _I_ make you nervous Kagome? Now that your pathetic Hojo isn't around to save you…?"

I was struggling to breathe again as the feel of his breath on my neck started doing weird things to my system. Heat flushed from my face all the way down south despite my attempts to fight it off.

"I've never been nervous around you Inuyasha…" I breathed, and he pulled away as abruptly as if I'd slapped him.

"Not nervous? Ever?" A clawed hand traveled slowly from my hip to the skin just underneath my tank top and I gasped softly in my throat.

_Oh Gods what the hell was he_ doing_?_

I shook my head, though I noted with increasing fascination that this was hardly stopping the half demon in front of me. Inuyasha watched his own hand as though astounded at it's boldness but when he actually lifted the rather tight fitting camisole I grit my teeth and groaned. The noise caused his eyes to snap to mine and just like that something in him seemed to break.

His answering grin was absolutely feral and he ran said hand just under the elastic of my shorts. The heat that filled me was unlike anything I'd ever experienced in my entire life, much like a fever combined with sticking a fork in an electrical outlet.

"What about now Kagome? 'Nervous' still the game for you?"

He grinned even more broadly though at the moment I hardly cared. Here he was, the half demon I'd been in love with for who knew how long, with his hand mere inches away from the one spot I had dreamed of him going for months. I decided then and there that I would get in trouble more often if this was my punishment.

It took my lust induced mind a moment to catch up with the fact that he actually wanted an answer and I choked out, "Only if you play it with me."

At this he froze and I stiffened as well, prepared for the pushing away, the blushes and stammers that he hadn't meant anything, the slow breaking of my heart as he walked away from me…

I looked down at the ground, purposefully avoiding his gaze and resisting the urge to hold his hand in place with supreme difficulty. But instead of any of that, he merely stayed motionless and after a few minutes I got impatient and looked up. His facial expression would have been hilarious had I not been so comically embarrassed myself. He looked not unlike he was trying to work things out by staring at me, but he was one crayon short of a coloring book.

He opened his mouth to speak and all at once I tried my best to still him with words. "Look, I'm sorry!"

Inuyasha raised a quizzical eyebrow at me and shut his mouth while I continued blubbering to him like some 5 year old begging for a time-out reprieve.

"Seriously, I didn't want to play at all but Hojo was so…so nice and he was _so _embarrassed! Let me tell you peer pressure is a bitch, and I just couldn't let him sit there looking terrified like that. But I swear the entire time he was-erm-_touching me_…"

Here I glanced up to carefully scrutinize his facial expression and make sure I wasn't making him angry for even mentioning the entire situation. When he didn't move or say anything at all I continued.

"Uh, touching me…I was thinking of you. So forgive me if I was a little daunted by the idea of coming back here and telling you that I'd just been felt up by some guy who's been in love with me si-!"

I shut my mouth at the ghost of a smirk on his face and opened my mouth to complain when he completely and totally kissed me. Of course, like any unsuspecting female I was shocked into rigidness. Another second later, like any normal female, I responded and before I knew it I was being ravished by an abnormally horny dog demon.

The hand that had been so curious about me before dove even deeper beneath my waist line and I gasped straight into Inuyasha's hungry, searching mouth. He alternated between rough and tender; one second our teeth were clicking together as I tried to keep up with his snarling fangs, and then my knees buckled as he lapped at my injured lips, carefully teased my tongue with his.

His grip on my hands loosened enough so that I was able to bring them down to rest on his shoulders and I took advantage of the moment to grip him tightly, trying my best to convey without words the need I had for him to stay. He groaned, much to my internal satisfaction, when I wound my hand through his hair and pushed myself up on tiptoe to better reach him.

I Eeped! a little when he brought his other arm down and wrapped it around my waist, pulling the other hand out from my pants so that it could join it's brethren at the small of my back. He held me so close I could feel his pulse rippling through me and I couldn't breathe. But another second later, we reluctantly tore our lips away from each other and just stared at each other in disbelief.

Inuyasha's golden gaze had darkened so much I wondered briefly if he had turned human in our moment of passion, but his fanged smirk kept that interesting theory at bay.

"Kagome…" He whispered and I smiled tenderly back at him, lost in his gaze and the fact that we were practically attached to each other.

"Yes, Inuyasha?" I murmured in what was supposed to be a seductive voice. Instead it came out more like a breathy whine, pleading to finish what he'd started. My blood was singing in my veins, my heart thumping so hard it most likely sounded like a drummer going to battle to his sensitive ears.

He chuckled and wrapped himself a little more firmly around me, burying his face in the crook my neck while I tried my best not to pass out. Instead I licked my lips and tossed my head to one side allowing him better access.

He groaned and whispered, "I love you."

At this I went completely rigid and he quickly followed suit, lifting his head to look me straight in the eye. The uncertainty in his gaze made me suddenly self-conscious and for a moment I panicked. This was not how he was supposed to confess his undying love for me!

We were supposed to be on the battlefield after Naraku's been defeated, covered in gore and surrounded by our friends, thanking all the gods that we're safe. Then I'm supposed to squeal with happiness and launch myself at Inuyasha screaming at the top of my lungs how happy I am that it's over, and then I'll unwittingly reach up and kiss him because I'm not in my right mind, and blush and freak-out. But then when I pull away from him and apologize he'll hold me close and tell me it's okay because he's been in love with me for so long he's imagined this moment in his head a thousand times and then we'll live happily ever after between worlds, in love for all eternity…

Needless to say this was not going according to my original plan.

So, of course, my response was not my plan either.

"_Why_?" I whispered.

He stared baldly at me for a long second before he let a frustrated growl slip through his teeth. A little more than taken aback at his sudden mood swing, I stood there in his arms motionlessly, waiting for his next move. Without another word he began to untangle himself, muttering under his breath, "If you didn't want me…"

At this I rapidly backpedaled. Wait a minute; he thought I was rejecting him? That after 3 years of waiting for his admission I was just going to let him walk away, broken hearted and upset with me for who knew how long?

Oh, hell no!

I grasped the forearm that was sliding from me the fastest and watched as his confused orbs took hold of mine. Unsure what to do in that moment I tugged on the arm in my hand and murmured angrily, "Don't say that!"

He froze completely in his tracks, his eyes rapidly searching my face for some kind of sign that I was going crazy or was simply pitying him. At this point it was neither; I was more furious than I'd ever been in my entire life.

"Kagome, what-?"

"What the hell is _wrong_ with you Inuyasha?"

I tried to keep my voice down, but with my rapidly rising temper coupled with the absolutely panicked look on Inuyasha's face I found everything I'd ever been angry about involving the hanyou coming out. Part of me realized that I was being completely unreasonable and acting childishly; still, my heart screamed at me to get everything out in the open so that if yelling was the only way to get into Inuyasha's thick skull I would do it.

In the brief second that I was silent after my rhetorical question Inuyasha spluttered, turned beet red and exclaimed, "Wrong with _me_? What the fuck is _your_ problem-?"

"My problem is _you_, you-you-TWO TIMER!"

To this is appeared Inuyasha had no immediate response, which was good considering I didn't plan on letting him actually get that far. Instead, I allowed him to choke out, "T-two timer?!"

"That's right, I said it! My problem, you uppity hanyou, is that _everything _is _always _about _you_! It's always, 'Find the jewel shards Kagome so that I can find Naraku and avenge Kikyo's death!', or 'Oh Kagome, I know that you've got a life on the other side of the well, but screw that and stay with me! After all, I'm not still pining over your previous incarnation or anything, and that's _definitely not _why I still want you around! The fact that you two look so much alike is just a happy coincidence that I skirt around anytime you try to confront me about it'!"

I took a much needed breath of fresh air to bring myself back down to reality before continuing in a more defeated tone, "Inuyasha I'm just…I'm just tired. Tired of trying to pretend that everything's alright, tired of hiding my feelings, tired of trying to be something I'm not, tired of everyone looking at me like they're sorry for me.

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" I vaguely realized my eyes were wet when I had to blink to clear my vision. "None of this would have happened if I had just been able to tell you how I felt in the first place! Do you want to know what really happened last night? The real reason that I was playing that stupid game when all I wanted was to be here with you?"

When he merely continued to stare at me like a fish out of water I whispered, "I went to that party for Eri, but I was going to leave early so I could get back in time for morning. They started playing the game just as I was leaving and when Hojo-"

I broke off momentarily when Inuyasha let loose a growl at the boy's name and glared at him hard enough to make him shut up. The growling ceased immediately, but the murderous glint in his eye remained. Satisfied that he would hold the peace I continued.

"When I was leaving, Hojo asked me why I was leaving so early; and you know what? For the life of me, I couldn't come up with one good reason that made sense. I kept telling myself I needed to come back for Sango, and Miroku, and Shippo, but most of all for you. But that didn't make sense; Sango and Miroku have each other, Shippo has them, an entire village that adores him and Kilala, and you don't give seem to give a damn when I _am _here. So what was my real reason? I didn't have one…

"So I played the stupid game, and the entire time he had his hands on me I closed my eyes and pictured it was you, the one thing that I was running from in the first place. Inuyasha…" I stared up into his unreadable golden eyes as they glinted in the sunlight, giving away nothing of the pent up emotions I knew I was wearing on my sleeve. "Why now? Why, after almost 3 years together, do you decide _now _to tell me something I've wanted to hear since I was 15? Is it because you finally feel threatened by someone else, or because you finally realized that I love you so much I feel like my heart will explode?"

You could have heard a pin drop in the middle of the forest as I stared deep into Inuyasha's amber orbs. Instead of answering with some blunt remark that would ruin the moment, he kissed me; but this time it was different. It was like he was trying to _show _me rather than tell me how he felt. It was slow, smoldering, passionate, and everything that I'd ever wanted to hear without a sound. I responded in kind, holding tightly to his shoulders as his arms tangled back in their previous position around my waist, pulling me close enough that I felt as though we ere melded together at the hip. For a long moment I was more content than I've ever been in my life; wrapped in his embrace, the security of having him so close, was like being wrapped in the softest, toughest blanket.

I had to initiate pulling away when I decided I couldn't breathe, but he buried his face in the crook of my neck underneath my hair while I turned my face into his chest. We held each other that way for a long time, neither one of us wanting to break the comfortable silence that had fallen. Reluctantly, I opened my mouth to say something when Inuyasha surprised me by beating me to it.

"I'm sorry Kagome…" his whisper was so emotional I thought for a moment that he might be crying. "So sorry…"

I clutched more tightly at his back before murmuring, "It's not your fault…"

"Keh, you can't get away with all the blame this time wench," he murmured back, lifting his head from my shoulder to stare down at me. The sentiment in his eyes nearly bowled me over, but I stood my ground because I knew we both needed me to stay calm. "It is my fault and I don't want you beating yourself up about things I haven't told you…"

For a long second I merely stared into his eyes, waiting as I watched him mentally gather and stack his thoughts together so that they made sense to him. I smiled as gently as I could at him, pulling his arms from around me so that I could take his hand. He glanced down at the gesture and gave me a small, but warm, smile before he sighed and continued, "Kagome, I do love you. (I sucked in a sharp breath at his words but otherwise remained silent…) Hell, I've _always _loved you, but it seems like every time I got the nerve to say it, something would interrupt us. Kikyo and her soul givers would come, I would make an ass out of myself, and you would run further away from me. Naraku would attack and I would push my feelings away because if anything ever happened to you because he knew about our relationship…"

Here he openly shuddered and broke off, but as I squeezed his hand in reassurance he took a deep breath and continued.

"Between Miroku's wind tunnel, Sango's injuries, Shippo's neediness, us never being alone for longer than 10 seconds, I swear that Kami himself was against us. Kagome, I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like I didn't care about you because of Kikyo. Yes, she and I will always have a special bond. But what I feel for you is so much stronger than that. Kagome you're my life now, my whole world, my ma-"

He broke off so suddenly I wondered if he had caught wind of someone else in the forest with us, but a quick look around and at his beet red face informed me that he had been about to _say _something more dangerous than any demon. "I'm you're 'what' exactly, Inuyasha?" I whispered, softly enough that I knew only he would be able to pick up on it.

The half demon shook his head as though he wasn't going to answer, but I leaned up and kissed him on the cheek and he sighed. "Kagome," he asked, "have you ever heard of Inu-youkai _mates_?"

I shook my head at the unfamiliar term, instantly intrigued. "_Mates_? No, not that I can think-"

"_Wolves mate for life, so you're mine now…"_

The memory from so long ago hit me so unexpectedly that for a moment I had to catch my breath, Koga's voice, for once, a welcome intrusion into my mind. All his constant talk of making me his woman suddenly became drastically clear, as well as the reasons behind why Inuyasha always seemed so peeved when Koga made those claims…

"Life mates…" I breathed out, and I felt Inuyasha tense and hold his breath. I tensed as well in response to his body and looked up to capture his eyes.

"Inuyasha…are you saying…I'm you're…_life mate_…?"

I could hardly believe the words coming out of my mouth, but I unwittingly felt myself hold my breath as I waited for the hanyou in front of me to respond. He shuffled once before he murmured, "Only if you…you _want _to be…you know, my m-mate…"

A loud roar flushed out the rest of whatever he was saying so that I felt myself begin to sway precariously. Spots suddenly clouded my vision and I vaguely heard someone shouting my name from a long distance away, but none of that mattered. I could hardly hear anything over the words that continued to replay over and over again…

"_Kagome you're my life now, my whole world, my mate..."_

"_My mate…"_

"_Only if you…you _want _to be…you know, my m-mate…"_

My mind was having a hard time wrapping around the fact that not only was this _not _a dream, but I was going into something akin to shock. Somehow I just knew that if I woke up to find this all a dream my whole world would collapse. There was no way that I was going to be able to wake up and have to go through what Inuyasha's natural response to my having been touched by Hojo was going to be: lots of yelling and fuming silence…

"Kagome? KAGOME! Dammit Kagome, wake up! _Kagome_!"

For a long second I wondered what on Earth he was talking about; I wasn't asleep, so why was he yelling at me now? Despite my self-assurance that I was, indeed, awake as I was able to hear bellowing in my ear, I opened my eyes to find Inuyasha's fearful ambers staring down into mine. My body was arranged neatly in his lap, swathed in fire rat and curled up in a ball where he had obviously placed me with care.

He let out a relieved sigh, exclaiming, "Are you alright?"

Oh Kami, what to even say to that? I was so much more than alright; I was _soaring_. Everything that I had ever wanted, everything that I had ever needed, was wrapped around me like a blanket, completely real and solid. Staring up into the eyes I'd always wanted staring at me the way they were I whispered, "I'm fine Inuyasha, better than fine. Will you…will you do me a favor?"

His body turned wary but he immediately answered, "Anything…"

I ducked my head away, knowing that my smile was going to give me away any second as I breathed just loud enough for him to hear, "Ask me again?"

"Uh…ask you what again?" The confused look on his face appeared adorable beyond words, and I had to stop myself from giggling outright at his conundrum.

"To be your mate. Ask me again…please?" I whispered, "Just one more time?"

His face went from confused to wary to a softened determination in a 2 second span, but his golden eyes brightened in a way that stopped my breath. Carefully and with infinite care he placed a clawed finger under my chin, lifting my face to look into his. I held my breath and waited while he took a deep breath and made some kind of internal decision before he opened his mouth.

"Kagome Higurashi," he whispered, the sound of my name rolling off his tongue like hot silk, "I love you, more than anything in this entire world, and nothing will ever change that. Will you be my mate, for the rest of our lives?"

I changed my mind; he didn't even have to ask.

Without thinking (of course; when do I ever?) I threw liquefied arms around his neck, pressing my lips to his one more time to seal the deal. As before the feeling of our mouths touching was like a balm to the soul and a flaming burn all over. I pushed closer so that we were chest to chest, straddling his lap and clutching at him as though my very life depended on it.

In the back of my mind I vaguely recognized that if anyone were to venture into the forest and see me wrapped as inappropriately as I was around the hanyou who technically _owned _the forest, they wouldn't think too highly of me. But Inuyasha, who could easily have stopped me had he been worried about a stray villager, didn't seem to have anything on his mind other than me in his lap. Grasping me tightly one arm wrapped around my waist, the feel of his claws gently raking over my sides making me squirm and shiver in his hold. His other hand twisted in the length of hair, trying desperately to pull me closer as our mouths moved in completely synchronization.

I broke away reluctantly when my lungs protested the lack of oxygen to my brain, turning my head to the side when Inuyasha buried his face in the crook of my neck. I breathed hard, smiling harder as I whispered, "Oh Inuyasha…you never had to even ask…"

He stiffened at my words, slowly looked up to lock eyes with me. "Kagome? You-you really mean that?"

Though I continued to smile, happy tears filled my eyes while I nodded. "Inuyasha I've waited _forever _for you to say this to me! Don't spoil the moment!" I laughed.

My hanyou just smiled at me, eyes shining with the wonderment that I felt. I noticed immediately, placing a chaste kiss on his lips that quickly turned heated. When we broke away again I murmured, "I love you…"

He pulled me closer and gave me shivers as he replied, "You are _mine_…my mate."

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"There they are!"

"We were wondering when you'd be back."

"Kagome!"

Our friends' greetings cut through the haze my mind was in as Inuyasha and I approached the village. I stifled a sigh, wrapping my mind around the fact that just a couple of hours before I had been ecstatic to see Sango and the others. The feeling of relief and happiness at seeing them wasn't dulled in the slightest, I just wished I had more time with Inuyasha. I knew he was going to go back to being the gruff hanyou that didn't show affection around the others, and the fact was like an icy chill on my heart.

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm here so late, I was out with some friends last night and time got the better of me…" I explained as we got closer.

As Shippo began babbling about his previous day in my absence, I halfheartedly slid from Inuyasha's back, shuddering as his claws brushed the backs of my thighs. The heat from the morning reignited in me and I let out an inadvertent, very low, breathy moan. While I flushed and hoped that Inuyasha hadn't heard, from the way he stiffened and let out his own murmur of a groan I knew that he'd caught it.

As soon as I was off his back and his warmth left me I found it just a little harder to keep the smile on my face for the little orange fur ball flying towards me. Nonetheless, I put out both of my arms to catch him as he got closer, but was unsurprised when Inuyasha placed himself in front of me.

"Be careful runt, you could hurt Kagome!" he berated, and I rolled my eyes at the argument that was sure to follow.

Sure enough, seconds later the dog hanyou was chasing the fox around the land while Sango, Miroku and I shook our heads in exasperation.

"So Kagome, how was your trip back home?" Miroku asked innocently enough, though the wicked gleam in his eye told me he was more morbidly curious than being friendly.

Sango noticed and rolled her eyes, taking one of my arms through her own as she steered me in the direction of Kaede's hut. "Don't listen to that pervert Kagome, he just wants the attention," she started, and I smiled at my best female friend. "But it _is _a little late in the day for your return. Shippo said he saw the well's light earlier this morning at around dawn when he went to the bathroom. Inuyasha left so he figured he went to go and get you. Where have you guys been?"

If it hadn't been Sango I could have easily lied about the entire situation; but it was, and I knew she would see through me in a second if I tried. Still, there was no way that I could tell her about what had really happened between Inuyasha and I if he wasn't ready to tell.

"Well, you see…we-"

"Were minding our own business, that's what."

I let out a grateful sigh of relief at Inuyasha's gruff response, turning to him with an appreciative smile I was inadvertently captured by eyes. I had hardly been expecting him to be looking down at me, and though I knew we were surrounded by our friends, for the life of me I couldn't look away. It seemed as though he were having the same problem, but he was having more of a problem keeping his gaze from straying to my lips…

"Eh-HM!"

At the sound of Miroku's loud throat clearing both of us jumped, forced to face his amused face and body language.

"Sango dearest, I think that we may have missed something while our dog eared friend and miko were away…" He might as well have nudged Sango in the side and gone "Eh? Eh? I told you so!"

Inuyasha blushed and let out a loud, "Feh!" and judging from the heat radiating from my face we matched. At the discovery and the look on everyone's face, I couldn't help but to just laugh. They started and stared at me as though I had lost my mind, but for the life of me I just couldn't stop. By the time I was finished I was clutching at my sides and wiping tears off of my face, holding on to Inuyasha in order to remain upright.

"Are you finished wench?" Inuyasha growled, but judging from his tone of voice he was less irritated and more annoyed because he was confused. Ah, the complexities of my hanyou's mind.

I smiled up at him cheerfully and exclaimed, "Yes. And Miroku…"

I turned to my friend expectantly gazing at me, mouth agape in anticipation. "Yes my dearest Kagome?"

Smiling to myself I looped an arm through Inuyasha's, turning towards the hut once more as I explained, "Inuyasha and I were just talking this morning and we weren't really ready to come back this morning. We were a little…_nervous_…"

Between the crestfallen look on Miroku's face, the confusion on Sango's and the blush on Inuyasha that matched his haori, I couldn't help but laugh out loud again at the secret just the two of us shared…

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, so the reason i didn't include the lemon was simply because I think I've written my share of stories where they admit their love to each other and immediately decide to have sex and become mates; I wanted to do something a little different, and I hope I accomplished that. Please review, and thank you to everyone for your continued support ^-^


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